More than 9 million people have moved to other EPS, but care problems remain

In Colombia, a total of 13 EPS have been liquidated following problems of corruption and resources for their operation, so users have been severely affected by running out of health services or having no place to access medicines.

Iván Mesa, director of insurance at the Ministry of Health, assured W Radio that the liquidations seek to improve health in Colombia and benefit patients who were affiliated with one of the WPS that have stopped working.

He also said that, despite the concern of Colombians, no one will be left without health care and gave a share of peace of mind to all those who are waiting for a transfer.

Many people have reported that they have been transferred to EPS, which does not have coverage in the municipality in which they live. To this, Mesa said that the decree of transfer will fix that.

In this regard, Mesa said that the objective is for people to have the option of choosing the health provider that best suits their needs.

“The monitoring of management is headed by the National Superintendency of Health, by now the EPS should have the necessary care, what is sought is to strengthen the insurance network,” he clarified.

Mesa said that there are already 9 million users transferred to different EPS and said that it has been a significant volume of users.

“From the moment the ministry took over the allocation of users to other EPS, we have more than 9 million people reassigned to other EPS, with determined liquidation, partial withdrawals or voluntary settlements. It has been a significant volume of users who have moved.”

After this distribution, Coomeva EPS users in liquidation will be able to know to which EPS they were assigned by entering Consulta affiliates assigned to other EPSs. And in turn, the receiving EPS must communicate the network of health services available to their users, as well as the channels of care.

“It is recommended that, in order to facilitate access to health services, the contributing member or head of household contact the assigned EPS and update their basic data and their family group,” confirmed the Director of Insurance of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.

The amount of debt held by EPS Coomeva, which has just entered the liquidation process, is close to $837 million pesos with clinics and hospitals in the country, accounts that will have to be resolved within the liquidation process of the health entity.

Given the decision of the Superintendency of Health, the patients' associations expect that it will be taken into account that the patients who are going to be transferred, for the most part, have serious illnesses.

According to the Colombian Association of Hospitals and Clinics (ACHC), which groups together more than 300 IPS, Coomeva's debt to these institutions as of June 2021 amounted to more than $554 million. 73% were overdue portfolio.

According to the information of the Superintendency, Coomeva has liabilities close to $1.7 trillion, that is, the EPS has a debt level of 1.6 times the value of the asset. “This represents a gap of $204.23 billion in adequate equity and cumulative losses exceeding one billion pesos,” the bank said.

Since October, the guild issued the alert to the Ministry of Health by means of a letter, calling for urgent measures to resolve the situation that, despite repeated attempts at dialogue, had not been resolved.

The liquidation announced a couple of days ago by the Superintendency of Health, for 4 years, in fact, was under special surveillance, but Coomeva did not take the measures of Supersalud.

“Coomeva does not meet the financial and solvency conditions, with the minimum capital and adequate equity indicators,” said the entity because during the first 11 months of 2021, Coomeva recorded losses of $190,219 million.

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